The invention relates to the manufacture of a card having a plastic layer forming one side of the card and a metal layer forming the other side of the card.
The term “card” or “cards” as used herein, and in the appended claims, is intended to include a large variety of documents and instruments such as transactional (financial) cards, identification (including National ID or Driver's License) cards, electronic passport pages, gift cards, documents for holding permanent and long lasting records such as medical records or security cards, or other cards used for promotion of a product or organization.
The manufacture of cards formed solely of a metal layer is known. These cards are intended to provide an indication of status and/or bestow a degree of prestige to the user. However, they are generally much more expensive to manufacture than the ubiquitous “plastic” cards.
Due to the prestige associated with the metal cards, it has become desirable to many users to have a “metal” card. However, the cost of manufacturing metal cards makes it uneconomical and hence undesirable in many applications. As a compromise, Applicant is proposing the use of a card which includes a metal layer and a plastic layer. Such a card would be much cheaper to make than a pure metal card. Such a card would also have some advantages such as the ease with which information may be formed on the plastic layer including the magnetic stripe, hologram and signature panel.
However, major problems exist in the manufacture of a card having a metal layer and a plastic layer. The normally different responses of the plastic and metal layers to temperature and stress tend to cause the card to warp and/or delaminate.
It is an object of the invention to manufacture a card formed with a metal layer attached to a plastic layer which is not subject to warpage and delamination.